LA NOIRE IS BREAKING MY BALLS

Everyone else is saving this topic for last, but it’s not what I actually want to talk about, so fuck it. Yes, I’m really enjoying LA Noire. I’ve just reached the Vice desk and completed my first case there.   I’ve also learned recently while playing that the names of the four desks are not spoilers, as you can actually see them in your notebook from the start of the game.

I don’t say it’s breaking my balls because of the actual game. Rather, it’s making it scary to discuss video games on the Internet right now. I’m afraid of entering any thread in fear of seeing something I’m not supposed to see. It took five hours of gameplay before I willed myself to read Brad’s review. Now I’ve got multiple people on my feed discussing their thoughts on the game, but with the exception of “Initial Impressions”, I know there’s a good chance I’m going to get some serious spoilers, which would be really, really disappointing,

I will probably post a thoughtful, spoiler-y review in the coming days, with the intention and full disclosure of it being a spoiler-y review because people should just play it anyways.

HAVING YOUR MOBILE CAKE AND EATING IT TOO

So, for those who haven’t noticed, I’ve been thinking about IOS games a lot; in fact, I’ve written two reviews already about them, and I’ve got a few more in mind for the weeks to come. But I’ve also gotten to have a lot of good discussion about the state of portable gaming as a result, and I feel like there are still people looking at things from a conflicted mindset.

I’ve observed that the press is starting to turn on standard portable gaming devices such as the 3DS and the NGP. Providing console-like experiences on a portable doesn’t seem desirable anymore; as has been said multiple times on the Bombcast in reference to games such as Uncharted NGP, “I’d rather be playing it on a home console.” In response, the press often then brings up the growth of gaming on IOS and Droid devices growing faster and faster.

However, the press and consumers alike both seem to regard actual games on those devices with a bit of incredulity. When I bring up mobile games on my podcast, Nerf’d (which I’ll be talking about in a bit,) my co-host always reacts with a hint of vitriol for my iPhone. The same goes for most consumers; they don’t want to consider mobile gaming as a serious venue for games.

And yet, here we are as a community, dissing the 3DS and NGP for being too little too late, not having software that embraces portability, not having software people would want to play all the same, and being another device that nobody wants to carry. I know it’s scary, everyone, but Nintendo doesn’t have to be the only company we respect for portable gaming anymore.

NERF’D 2: LIVE AND RELOADED

So, hey, in case you didn’t know, I run a podcast called Nerf’d and have been doing so since the end of January. However, my co-host Jake (GiantBomb username commisar123) and I are now finally back living near each other again and are planning to room together next year at college, so we’ll be recording all our episodes in a live format from now on. As a result, we’ve decided to refer to all episodes before this point as “Season 1,” and any from here to the rest of the year as “Season 2.” I’m so sorry this week’s episode is three hours long; I blame it on figuring out logistics of recording from home, and also on having two guests.

I’ve learned a lot about editing and hosting over the last few months of recording a podcast, and learned a lot about myself as a gamer. For one, I’ve learned how to temper myself when I don’t like a game other people are enjoying. I’ve also learned how angry I can get if I really let myself get worked up over things that bother me about a game, and while it might be entertaining, it’s not a good life strategy. I also expected getting onto iTunes to be a more difficult process after the initial rejection of the NDX, but it happened very easily for us.

Though we haven’t paid for tracking services on our podcast host (Hipcast), we receive a graph showing that we get a little over a hundred downloads per day and have been for about two months now. We definitely hit a dip the day the world found out we didn’t like Portal 2, but we seem to have bounced back since then.

Before I wrap up talking about this, I’d like to state how vital it is to be free when you talk about games. If you don’t like a game people like, be free to say so, and just be understanding of the other side, and the same goes the other way around. Rarely is there zero logical argument for why someone dislikes a game, and even if there is zero logical argument, then it’s the inescapables that make someone not like it. But not talking at all will be what makes you give up on video games when you’re “too busy and stressed out to have a hobby” in the future.

ADIÓS, MUCHACHOS

That’s gonna do it for this week’s blog. As I said, I’d like to write about LA Noire by the end of this week, but I’m hoping I’ll also have played more Terraria by the end of the week so I can write about that. If I finish Noire this week, I’ll probably also start up Outland, and I may follow up my other IOS reviews with a third this week; Angry Birds or Unpleasant Horse.